My Dad

My father was diagnosed with Stage IV Esophageal cancer in July which had spread to his liver. It was a huge shock for all of my family and we are terrified on how quickly my dad has lost weight within the past few months. He was a small man to begin with only weighing about 125 lbs, but now he is down to 96 pounds.  He is so weak and pale and has a very hard time eating.  He has certain days that he can hold a few things in his stomach, but other days he cannot hold anything down and it ends up getting stuck and he has to throw it all up.  They put in a stent to try to help him eat easier, but it seems to not be working. He has been doing chemo once a week for a few weeks already and so far he couldn't do it 3 times b/c his white cell blood count was low.   We have an apt at the end of the week with his GI doctor to see if something is wrong with the stent or explain why he can't eat well.   I feel so bad when i see that my father wants to eat and can't.  He gets so frustrated and he is so depressed. Can anyone reccommend on what else we could do to try to help him eat and not get the food stuck.

 Please help.

On 9/19/2007 meg_erin wrote:

My mom has the same problem and has been just eating softer foods and always has a glass of water.  If it starts to get caught she washes it down with the water.  Sometimes though even those lil tricks might not work.  Is he having radiation too?  My mom is starting chemo and radiation next week and had a feeding tube put in so that if she can't eat she can get some nutrients at least.  I hope this helps and keep us posted!!

My husband was diagnosed aug 15th and also had a stent inserted. His slipped while he was still in the hospital and to be pulled up. He also was in alot of pain after it was put in. He ate soft foods and some of them got stuck and they had to clean the stent out after one week. All of this happened in the past 30 days. He has had to learn how to eat small bites and chew them completely. He has to drink something to help the food go down because the stent has no muscle pull to help it get down to the stomach. He supplements with ensure plus or boost plus. They put him on the mechanical diet of mainly mushed up food but he has graduated to soft and they have not gotten stuck lately. The dietician suggested to keep coca cola on hand to take a shot of after eating because it will eat through any stuck food. He is starting to eat more normal food but after starting chemo last week, he went from being constipated to having diarrea. He was diagnosed with stage 3 and given 12-14 months. Any suggestions for us would be greatly appreciated and i hope i have helped you some too. Keep praying-that's all we can do. My husband is only 52! Laura  

Hi All,

My husband was diagnosed with Stage 4, mets to liver in Nov. 2004.  They inserted a feeding tube, but he hardly used it.  The Chemo and Radiation shrunk the cancer in his esophagus and he was able to eat.  Long story...short......he survived for 2 years.  He had Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) twice to destroy the tumors on the liver.  The second time was too much for his liver and it shut down.  Never give up though.......keep fighting.......and get more than one opinion on treatment. 

Laura....Stage 3.....what treatments are they suggesting?  Don't listen to the stats they give you on survival time.  They gave my husband 3-6 months!  He was 57 when dx.